


Einstein Wasn't Lazy

by orphan_account



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: College, Gen, Gifted Kid Trauma, Hurt No Comfort, Out of Character, They/Them Pronouns for TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Unreliable Narrator, for now, guys ive forgotten how to tag, that needs to be a tag, vent fic, wilbur's a bit of a dick here ngl but like... understandably? idk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 05:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30134781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Tommy is struggling in college---Wilbur is upset that Tommy isnt talking to him(two separate parts, Tommy pov then Wilbur pov, Wilbur makes unfortunate assumptions based on the info he has)
Kudos: 17





	Einstein Wasn't Lazy

**Author's Note:**

> literally a quarter of this is just me rambling about an overcomplicated metaphor that I made up so... be warned ig. also please understand that some of what tommy (and also wilbur) are saying is shitty and wrong, its simply what worked best for the characters here.  
> Orphaned because I regret posting this but I don't want to delete it if someone cared abt it

Tommy laughed. Tommy grinned. Tommy smiled. Tommy was carefree and happy. Tommy joked. Tommy sat, content. Tommy was with their friends, and Tommy was happy.

Tommy knew it was stupid. Knew in the back of their mind at every moment that everything would come crashing down very soon. That wasn’t them being paranoid. It was the natural consequence of them hiding the fact that they were failing all except one of their classes from everyone except Tubbo.

Tubbo didn’t know all of it. Tommy had shared some of it with him because they knew Tubbo would understand; his dyslexia had caused him problems with his grades in the past. But Tubbo had a _reason_. Tubbo’s grades were because of something out of his control. Tommy’s? They were simply from them being too fucking lazy to actually do their work.

So Tommy had shared some of it, but not the reasons why. They had led Tubbo to believe that their grades were from an untreated mental health issue not- not them just being too lazy and tired to do their work or get out of bed or do anything that didn’t involve hanging out with Tubbo or Ranboo. Or eating, but that was only so they didn’t upset Tubbo. Tubbo had enough on his plate as it was.

Tommy was fucking terrified. All the time. They had known from when they had first lied to Phil about their grades that it would come back to bite them. And now it was only all the more certain to happen. Everything had snowballed. Even if they started trying again now, they would most likely be unable to even _pass_ all of their classes. And that was if they were able to stop being so fucking _lazy_. It couldn’t be that hard! Most everyone else at their college did it, Tommy was just too much of a dick to do so themself.

Tommy just- they just didn’t care anymore. That wasn’t true, of course, they obviously cared, or they wouldn’t be having this whole crisis in their head, but their concern wasn’t _doing_ anything. It was like- it was like their concern usually bounced around their whole... space. Or whatever the fuck you wanted to call it. Brain. Mind. Being. And there were like these- these fucking button things? That you hit them, and you do your work/other stuff you need to do/make your brain function. And each time the concern hit those buttons, the concern for that thing went away, so the big ball of concern got smaller. And everytime it hit something that wasn’t a button, the ball of concern would inflate, but no extra mass would be added. Thus, the extra air would leave as you pop each bubble of concern, leaving it the same as if you had removed that section of concern without first inflating it. The ball of concern, of course, would get larger again as you get more responsibilities but hitting buttons would keep it at a manageable size. But right now, it felt like their concern was trapped in a cage. It still bounced around, but it couldn’t hit any of the buttons, which of course just caused more stress, but it couldn’t leave, so it just kept getting inflated. But the cage was stronger than it was, so once it got too big, it popped. But since it hadn’t hit a button, it popping simply meant it went back to its original in cage size, to start the whole process over again, along with a _fun_ mental breakdown to accompany the popping.

So. That was their explanation for what was going on. It didn’t make any fucking sense though. Why the fuck would their concern be in a box. And why couldn’t they just break out of it and stop being so fucking lazy like literally everyone else did. Tommy wasn’t special, they weren’t mentally ill or anything, they were just... a dick.

Tommy sighed. Time to go to bed. Then they would wake up, feel entirely unrested, and do absolutely none of their work. But for now? They were going to bed.

\----------------------------------------------------------

Wilbur was worried. Specifically, right now, he was worried about Tommy. Wilbur was the TA for Tommy’s World History class, and as such graded all their homework. The homework was not anonymized, something Wilbur took care not to abuse, and as such, when Tommy’s name hadn’t been on any of the turned in assignments for the past week, Wilbur had noticed.

Tommy was a good kid. A bit chaotic, but very smart, which had led to their early admittance to college, where they had gotten mostly Bs, with a couple other lower and higher grades over the semesters they had been there. It was almost the end of the semester and given their missing assignments and the unfortunately subpar quality of work that they _had_ turned in, Tommy was looking at a low D or an F in this class.

Wilbur didn’t get it. He knew Tommy was smart. He knew Tommy could do anything if they put their mind to it. They just... didn’t seem to care anymore. About their grades, about Wilbur, about doing anything other than talking to Tubbo and Ranboo. And Wilbur wasn’t gonna lie, that _hurt_. He and Tommy had joked about being siblings, but it had felt real to Wilbur. Wilbur genuinely had, and still did, think of them as a sibling. So the fact that they hadn’t spoken in who knows how long? The fact that Wilbur had supported them through their other five semesters of college and now Tommy was throwing that away to fail out of college because they didn’t _care_? Of course Wilbur was upset.

And yeah, Wilbur wasn’t stupid, he had gone through mental health struggles. He knew that Tommy had a lot of symptoms of some of them. But Tommy knew Wilbur had struggled with his mental health. They knew they could come to Wilbur about that, Wilbur had made it very clear. So the fact that Tommy hadn’t come to him? That meant that this was voluntary on Tommy’s part, which was _really fucking shitty_ of them.

**Author's Note:**

> might add comfort if i can figure out how. will probably delete this in a couple days <3


End file.
